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Fleeing Fidel & Finding Florida:
The Mariel Boatlift an Immigration Breakthrough

Meet the Marielitas

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"Amanda Mickler, Maria Martinez Guzman, Amy Heaton, and Julia Lubitz respectively at Univision for an interview with a Marielita" (Guzman, Personal Interview).

Meet Maria Guzman

Meet the Marielitas that made the perilous journey from Communist Cuba to the American Dream. Mrs.Guzman shared her story of success with Amanda, Amy, and Julia in a personal interview.  

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❝Now I am proud of it [Marielita] I have been proud of it for so many years. And I think I wear it as a badge of honor and being a journalist, being a Marielita is a good thing it is something to be so proud of."      
- Maria Martinez Guzman 

❝Next thing I knew, I was in Key West with the coast guard saving us cause in a boat that should have been 35 people it had like 120."
- Maria Martinez Guzman

Meet Mirta Ojito

"Mirta Ojito is an award-winning journalist and author who began her career in South Florida at the "Miami Herald" and "El Nuevo Herald" (Miami Herald). Mrs.Ojito is an example of the American dream. She even had the opportunity to interview Fidel Castro.

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❝We sneaked into the hotel and I turned our ID's in a way that they could not see that we were reporters so we were very nervous."
-Mirta Ojito about Fidel Castro Interview

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❝Sometimes you have to hold your breath and jump, and take risks and hope for the best."
-Mirta Ojito Interview

Our Interview with Mirta Ojito

"Mirta Ojito's Memoir of the Mariel Boatlift" (Ojito).

"Passanger record of the Mirta Ojito in the Mariel Boatlift" (Miami Herald).

"In 1980 Mirta Ojito was sixteen and not unlike most other Cuban teenagers-torn between the antigovernment critisms that filled her house and the pull of the revolution that demanded absolute loyalty, even for children. Then her family got the knock on the door that they'd been waiting for since the early 1960s: a chance to flee to the United States" (Ojito, Penguin Book Memoir).


"Just because it is legal does not make it right."
-Christine Dahl Federal Public Defender